1. Field of the Invention
The need for a workable suspension and release system which will positively eject a store carried by an aircraft has become increasingly critical. Aerodynamic loads may cause the store to maneuver violently before dropping away from the aircraft, in some cases even striking the aircraft structure. It has also been difficult to successfully drop a store during many types of maneuvers because, by reason of the maneuvers, the stores would not move sufficiently far away from the aircraft to avoid striking portions of the aircraft structure or adjacent stores. In addition to the effects from aerodynamic loads, negative and positive "g" conditions caused by aircraft maneuvers also pertubate the manner in which the store is released from the aircraft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current ejection variability is achieved by selecting, from a minimal number of cartridges, a cartridge or cartridges to approximate the required ejection force of an aircraft weapon/store. This force is usually determined by the mass of the store and does not always take into consideration the effects of aircraft flow field. The cartridge selected has a fixed force value and cannot be replaced or adjusted once in flight.
In some cases, the cartridge gases can be metered to compensate for a known weapon weight and active forces and moments for a specific delivery condition. However, in the real world of air combat, the probability of obtaining this one known weapon ejection condition at the time of release is highly unlikely and could cause catastrophic failure to the weapon/aircraft and/or the mission.